Originally from Massachusetts, Angela Piro is a mixed media artist that likes working with thick paint and dried paint, currently living and working at Arcosanti’s Cosanti Originals ceramic department. Angela has been a resident of Arcosanti in the camp portion of the property for two years. During that time, she has volunteered in numerous departments, taught ceramics workshops, and sold her art to help support herself. She also runs the resident art show in the gallery and helped organize a resident art market at Arcosanti. It will return and be at Cosanti in the future.
Ceramics at Arcosanti is a very immersive way to do ceramics. The artisans work with the weather, rain or shine, inside the apse. Angela works with all the elements in their practice - earth to cast the bells in and form the clay, water to mix into the clay, air to dry the clay, and fire to fire the clay. Her work is heavily influenced by her time there.
“It is a humbling process that makes me feel connected to the earth by being aware of it at all times. One of my favorite memories of ceramics is having worked down by the river. We did our usual silt casting process, but we did it in the wild using all foraged materials from Arcosanti. We found silt and made molds with rocks. We found wild clay and mixed it with water from the river to make slip. And we poured the slip into the rock molds to make fully organic bells.
She loves working at Arcosanti because it is a community of people who care about art, the environment, and arcology. She feels like she’s a part of something more prominent and that her work has a purpose.
You can find Angela’s art here: angelartbb.com
